


Blood Stained Reward

by LadyGinoza



Category: Psycho-Pass
Genre: Gen, How Psycho-Pass should have ended
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-08
Updated: 2016-03-07
Packaged: 2018-05-25 11:11:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6192754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyGinoza/pseuds/LadyGinoza
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How Psycho-Pass should have ended.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AngryCakeChids](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngryCakeChids/gifts).



> Happy birthday my little adorable child, you!

**Chapter 1**

**Kougami**

Thanks to Saiga’s help, I was able to figure out exactly what Makishima’s next goal would be and if it wasn’t apparent that someone needs to take him down now it is. It’s without a doubt that we have to stop him; he’s completely lost his damn mind if he hasn’t already lost it way before then.

Before, all of his schemes were beneficial to him in a way but what would contaminating the country’s food supply do for him? He needs to eat too doesn’t he? Or he simply wants to force Japan to open up its borders once again to foreign countries and in turn the Sibyl system would then become completely useless and before long it would crumble into nothing.

Yeah that’s probably it, I can’t figure out any other reasons why he would even try to pull this grand scheme of his since it’s no secret that he wants to take down the system and apparently he’ll use whatever means necessary in order to do it.

I have to say though he’s got some balls for trying to take control of the Izumo University Kudama Laboratory all by himself but then again it took some balls to start up that riot just so the MWPSB’s Nona tower would be defenseless.

Anyway, all he needed in order to get started on his plan were to acquire parts of professor Kudama and once he had those, the rest would easily fall into place…

From where I’m standing, the facility seems to be completely functional and the security system is fully in operation, there’s no way I’ll be able to get in without getting spotted by that lunatic inside and yet I just have this gut feeling that’s exactly what he’s hoping for too. He wants me to find a way inside, to claw and struggle to get to him. The thing is that I have no idea why he’s got this crazy ass obsession towards me all of a sudden but not like that matters in the slightest right now.

The sound of propellers in the distance catches my attention and here it comes, one of the MWPSB’s choppers is finally on its way. I have to say they arrived just in time too; it sure as hell will help me to get inside.

They couldn’t have arrived at a better time than this and I have to admit, I’m rather impress that they got here so damn fast but then again, Tsunemori and Gino are both intelligent individuals so it shouldn’t surprise me that they figured it out already.

I watch the chopper fly over me as it passes and continues straight to the landing platform of the facility as I take out my communicator and start putting Gino’s frequency number when I stop myself and instead insert Tsunemori’s. I’ll have a better chance on negotiating with her than with Gino considering how I walked out on him in order to kill Makishima. Calling Gino right now would only be adding salt into the wound that I’ve opened one too many times and I’m deeply sorry for that.

“Tsunemori here.” She answers after a few long rings. For a moment there I thought she might actually ignore my call altogether so I’ll take it that maybe Gino has finally started getting through to her about how she should be acting towards latent criminals.

“Didn’t think you’d get here this fast.” I say but considering that Gino is the one who makes the calls about what the team will do next, I guess there isn’t much that Tsunemori had to do. They’re here because Gino decided that it be best to come here or perhaps Tsunemori talked him into it.

Who knows but right now I need to get inside. I’ll figure the rest out once Makishima is dead.

“Then you shouldn’t be underestimating the bureau.” She shoots back at me immediately with a somewhat severe tone and hearing it; I just can’t help but wonder what’s her expression right about now. “You’re not the only one who can chase Makishima into a corner.” She further adds, her voice is firm and not shaking.

I can’t help but smirk at that last comment. To be honest the only reason they were able to figure out where Makishima was heading next was because I left the audio chip for them to find in case there were complications for me but they did manage to find it rather quickly. To be honest I wasn’t expecting them to find my clue that fast but it doesn’t matter right now. What matters is to put a stop to Makishima’s plans once and for all.

“He’s already in the facility. He must be using the equipment that professor Kudama left in the university’s lab to alter the Uka-no-Mitama Virus as we speak and that’s assuming that he hasn’t already finished.” I state, starring at the facility’s main entrance and I can’t help but feel frustrated the more I stare at it. It’s right there in front of me, only a few feet away but I can’t get in because of those drones and security cameras. I’ll never be able to make it through in one piece and knowing the fact that lunatic is in there is making me cringe.

We have no time!

“He won’t pull this off. We can’t let him.” Tsunemori voices out and I agree.

No, we can’t allow him to succeed in his plan. If we lose, thousands of people will die and the whole society will collapse. No we can’t let him get away with this no matter what; no matter the cause I’ll stop him.

“Then we got to be quick before he distributes this tampered version of the virus. We’ve got to shut down the entire facility.” I quickly explain and add, “You should be able to cut off the power of this place under the authority of the MWPSB, right?”

“If we do that it won’t just shut down the facility’s machines but the security system too, that’s what you want isn’t?” She tells me and yeah she’s right but it’s not just what I want. In order to put a dent into Makishima’s plans, we have to shut down the facility to stop him from further tampering with the virus. We have no other choice in the matter, it has to be done.

“You’re trying to use us to lower the defenses so you can get to Makishima before we can and take him out isn’t that right, Kougami?” She further tells me and again I can’t deny it. That’s the plan alright. I have to get to that bastard before they do so I can kill him myself. “We’ll never let you do that.” Tsunemori adds.

I was expecting some opposition from the MWPSB. For some odd reason the chief wants Makishima caught alive and unharmed. There has to be a reason for that so yeah I understand why they won’t let me kill Makishima if they can prevent it but I have a feeling that it’s  more something that Tsunemori wants and not exactly they…

“That man wants to bring down this society. That means the MWPSB only has one choice, cut off the power, do that and you save our country.” The very thought of Makishima’s plan succeeding is enough to send shivers down my spine. It’s nauseating at how he’s willing to let innocent people die just to further his own damn cause whatever that may be.

“I’ll find a way to save you also; I’ll not make Shinya Kougami a murderer.” She says after a short period of silence and there it is. I knew it, she’s the one who wants to prevent me from killing Makishima but there’s something different in Tsunemori’s tone and as much as I want to ask what’s going on, I can’t bring myself to. I have no right to ask, I walked out on my team in order to kill Makishima once and for all.

“Then we’ve got ourselves a race.” I add before cutting off the transmission, placing the small communicator back into my pocket as I wait.

The power needs to get caught off; Tsunemori must know that this is the only way. She can’t do a miracle and it would take much too long to have the security system transferred to the MWPSB and shut down the power. The only option is to shut down everything and I know Kunizuka is able to do that within a few minutes.

Gino is no fool either, I know he was listening to our conversation and the only logical solution to put a stop into Makishima’s plan is to cut down the power. Unlike Tsunemori I know he doesn’t want to save me, he’ll be more than happy to shoot me on the spot so what the hell is he doing? From where I’m standing it feels as if Tsunemori has taken over the team completely and that’s just odd considering how Gino is, especially that this isn’t the time to allow a rookie to take over. What the hell are you thinking Gino?

After several minutes the drones at the main entrance suddenly shuts down and that’s my queue to bolt into action as I speed up into a run in order to use one of the drones to leap over the wall of the facility and just like that I’m in.

To be honest I’m not exactly thrilled about the size of the place. It’s so damn huge, it wouldn’t be too bad if it was just me and Makishima but I have to search all the while avoid my old team but I can’t shake off this gut feeling. I don’t know, I just have this very bad feeling and it’s not about the virus. I don’t think he’s had the time to fully tamper with it yet, I just have this feeling that things are going to get real ugly soon and it will be beyond what I can handle. I’m afraid that everything will slip through my fingers…

I reach for my communicator in my pocket, wasting no time pulling it out and quickly put in Shion’s frequency as I carefully navigate through the facility. I can’t afford to get myself caught here, I have no intentions of getting myself paralyzed by the dominator, well at this point it will probably go into eliminator mode and that will be it for me.

“An unknown frequency… What can I do for you Shinya?” She answers and I can’t help but smile at that.

Shion just knows and if I would ask how she could tell she’d answer how her female intuitions gave her the answer but then again, who else could it be other than me. However, it’s her tone that I don’t like. Everyone sounds different, okay I could understand Tsunemori’s coldness towards me considering how I left but what’s with Shion’s grim tone for? It’s not like her and she understood why I had to leave, we spoke to each other about it so why is it a bother now? Is it because of Tsunemori?

“I need a quick layout of the facility. I can’t go running around blindly for long, I need to get to Makishima first.” I tell her straight to the point as I look over my shoulder and then do a double check of my surroundings before advancing.

“The university’s laboratories should be at the very center of the place.” She tells me and that sure will help to eliminate the places for me to check and yeah it makes sense to have the labs at the central position of the facility. It’s way more logical and efficient that way but that means that Tsunemori and the others are almost there since the heliport is right on the roof.

Shit!

“Shion you know I had to do this. You understand why I had to do this, right?” I ask.

“I know…” She answers sadly. “Shinya?”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t know how to say this, there’s no way to say it…” She says and I can feel a hint of worry in her tone as she tries to choose her words carefully before continuing, “Ginoza is missing.”

“What do you mean Gino is missing?” I quickly blurt out as I feel my stomach take a sudden flop.

That has to be a mistake, Gino can’t be missing. Nah, there has to be a misunderstanding. Yeah that’s it, that has to be it and yet I know it’s just me pulling up false excuses but this can’t be happening right now.

“The day after you left, things were pretty heated but everyone was coping in their own way. Ginoza went home after his shift was over but he never came in the next day. We haven’t heard from him since.” Shion explains and that explains Tsunemori’s coldness and if that’s the case then it means Tsunemori only had Kunizuka and Pops with her and that’s not good.

What the fuck is she thinking coming here with only two enforcers?  

“Who’s searching for him!?” I ask, trying to control my ever growing anger but I can’t control my tone. I can’t hide the sheer frustration in my voice; I just want to kill right now!

“Division two is but there’s not much to go on.” Shion says.

“Risa isn’t looking hard enough!” I blurt out in anger.

Not much to go on is a bullshit excuse. There’s always something to go on, the evidence doesn’t lie! You can’t do something without leaving a trail, Risa should fucking know that!

“Shinya, all we know is that Ginoza arrived home, fed his dog and went to sleep. Nothing shows that he left his apartment, he just disappeared.”  Shion explains and now it all makes perfect sense.

I know my leaving; my betrayal caused him further pain. I know that and I’m so sorry but I know Gino more than anyone else. I know what he’s capable of and I know for a fact that he wouldn’t do anything by himself. Gino wouldn’t come looking for me on his own, he wouldn’t do anything outside the law because that’s the type of guy he is. He’s a straight arrow through and through.

“Gino disappeared because someone made it happen.” I state and all I can picture is that damn lunatic. It has to be him, there’s no other possibilities that’s coming into my mind. He found Gino’s home, waited for him probably and broke into the apartment and got to work.

You’d think that Dime would have protected his owner, would have acted like a guard dog for once but Gino did tell me once that Dime would probably help a burglar steal, that he was a very poor guard dog but I didn’t believe him. He was right…

Shit!

“Shinya…?”

“What Shion?”

“Ginoza is more important than taking Makishima’s life. Find Ginoza first, Shinya. I know it’s asking a lot but-”

“I don’t plan on leaving Gino at that bastard’s mercy. I’ll kill Makishima and save Gino. I promise.” I cut her off and I plan on keeping to that promise. I’ll make him pay for everything that he’s done. He’ll pay for all those who died because of him, I’ll avenge Sasayama and I’ll make him regret for touching a hair on Gino’s head.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**Ginoza**

The throbbing in my head is slowly starting to go away little by little but that’s only the least of my problems right now. I have to somehow figure a way to free myself from these restraints in order to get away and then find a place to hide until I can get my barings together and figure what my next plan of action should be but no matter how much I struggle I just can’t get free.

I don’t know what kind of restraints that’s been used on my wrists but no matter how much I try, I can’t loosen then up and the only thing that I managed to accomplish is only to further cause injuries to myself. Injuries that I didn’t need right now…

The headache that I woke up with was enough to deal with and after who knows how long it’s now starting to go away little by littler and I’m thankful for that but now due to my constant struggling to get free I now have a constant throbbing in my wrists and at this point I can’t tell if my restraints has cut through my skin or it’s just sore but it’s a real annoyance to deal with.

I didn’t need this!

“And now we come to one of my favourite stories in the book of Matthew.” Makishima casually says catching my attention as he turns a page ever so casually with no care in the world.

He had been silent for a while now much to my pleasure and the only thing I could hear was occasional pages flipping and the sounds of machinery in motion in the distance and a few times here and there he’d read a passage from the bible like it was nothing at all or something that he does as a regular thing just for his own amusement.  

He hasn’t turned to face me once and the only remark he had made to me was when I woke up but other than that he’s been ignoring me completely like I’m of no importance to him what so ever which leads me to wonder why he even brought me here in the first place.

By the way he’s behaving you’d think that I’m of no use to him and he simply decided to abduct me for his own sadistic amusement and yet I feel as if he just doesn’t have any use for me at the moment but he will later…

He knows that I can’t do a single thing right now, he knows that I can’t break out of my restraints and it’s like this is his way of showing me that he’s in complete control and as much as I hate to admit it he is. I’m powerless, there’s nothing that I can do…

I don’t know anything and that bothers me…

I don’t recall how I got here; I just woke up in this place. The last memory that I have was that I went to bed and that’s it. Everything after that is a complete blank and even if I somehow managed to free myself and was able to get away from Makishima and hide from him. I don’t even know where we are and I have no idea if there’s a way for me to contact the bureau to notify the chief of the situation.

Makishima hasn’t bothered spilling any information as to why he abducted me in the first place but I can be sure whatever he needs me for, isn’t going to be a good thing for me and for whatever reason he decided to come here, it doesn’t take a genius to figure it out that this must be part of his next plot and in the end I’ll be nothing more than a damn pawn to him to further his next scheme.

“Jesus told them another parable: The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away.” He reads and I wish that he’d cut it out already. I prefer when he’s dead quiet and all I can hear is when he turns the pages of his book.

What does he know about good? He’s the complete opposite, anyone who murders people just for his own amusement are worse than villain, maybe even worse than a Tyrant.

It’s without a doubt that Makishima is a dangerous man but it’s not because he’s cunning. True that it’s one of his strong attributes but that’s not the only thing that makes him dangerous. Makishima is able to calculate his movements in order to always be two to three steps ahead of everyone. No matter what he decides to do, he always has several other paths for him to take and in the end that’s what makes him extremely hard to predict what his next move will be. The thing is that he often hints you what he’ll do next but in reality he does the complete opposite so it’s no wonder why we had such a hard time catching whims of him before until now. The only reason why we did get whims of him is because that’s what he wanted; it wasn’t exactly our doing…

I despise myself for thinking like this because it sounds ridiculous but as stupid it may sound like, my only hope of getting out of this is Kougami. He’s out there somewhere, he’s on the loose and I know that he’ll stop at nothing to find Makishima. Knowing Kougami, he’s probably already hot on his trail right now, especially since he no longer has anyone holding him back-

I really am just a pawn in this next scheme… I’m a fool for not realizing it sooner.

That’s it isn’t it?

It’s just like when he used Yuki Funahara on Tsunemori, he’s going to use me as leverage on Kougami in order to toy with him and possibly affect his movements…

Or…

No it has to be both…

His next scheme, it must take a certain amount of time before he can carry it out so he’s hoping to buy some time.

He could have abducted Tsunemori instead, she would have been an easier target considering her size but instead he went after me. When you look at it, it looks like he slipped but it was actually a smart move on his part. He took me since he knows that Tsunemori lacks experience, he’s gambling that her inexperience will cause her to make a grave mistake once on the field.

Once I failed to show up at work, Tsunemori probably went to investigate in order to see what’s going on with me and then she found that I wasn’t there with no sign that I left the apartment and knowing Makishima, he must have planted fake clues throughout the apartment in order to drive Tsunemori off towards the wrong direction and before she’d realize what’s happened, Makishima would have finished preparing his next plot.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned though, Tsunemori has grown a great deal for the short amount of time since becoming an inspector. I have faith that she’ll figure it out and as much as I hate to rely on him I have faith that Masaoka will sniff out the right trail and I know for a fact that whatever he’ll tell Tsunemori, she’ll listen.

The sound of the machines starting to slow down catches my attention and not long afterwards the lights go out and all has become dead quiet.

“Not bad at all… For the police.” He casually says like it’s nothing at all as he closes his book and lays it down on the control panel before standing up.

If it’s true and Tsunemori is here, wherever here even is then it’s good because if she’s here it also means that Kougami has been here for some time before her so Makishima’s plot is certain to fail and yet he doesn’t seem worried at all. As if he predicted this to happen or maybe that’s what he wants and I can’t help but have this lingering fear down my gut.

He inserts a few things in his pockets that I can’t distinguish very well before turning towards me and a part of me wishes that I wasn’t here in this very moment.

“Time for the grand finale.” He tells me before picking up a nail gun and walks slowly towards me.

He pulls me up to my feet by the collar of my shirt only to realize that I barely have any strength in my legs and as much as I want to struggle, to give him as much trouble as I can, I can’t do anything.

I don’t know what he did to me but I feel so weak and there’s nothing that I can do as he drags me towards where he wants to go like a doll and nothing that I see actually helps me to figure out where we are and for a bit we were in a dark hallways and then we emerged in some sort of warehouse filled with large boxed containers stacked up on top of each other.

Where are we? Are we even in the city anymore? I can’t tell but Makishima is making sure that I don’t dwell too much in my thoughts as he shoves me onto the ground near a large container and surprisingly he took the time to help me sit before leaving and I can’t help but have a very bad feeling about all of this…


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**Masaoka**

Our numbers keeps on thinning and if you ask me, division one is no longer suited for handling this case but the little missy wishes to proceed by all means and I can’t deny that she’s probably right in wanting to pursue the case no matter what considering what we now know but we don’t have enough man power right now.

But…

If we can find Makishima, we’ll find my boy and the very thought of that scares me. It’s the only reason why I haven’t tried to talk some sense into the little missy. I’ll do whatever it takes in order to get my son back, whatever it takes.

After Kagari’s sudden and mysterious disappearance and Makishima’s suspicious escape, I honestly believed by helping Kou escape the MWPSB was the better option into catching Makishima. I never thought that my son would fall victim to this man and now I regret for having allowed Kou to escape. This team needs him more than ever in this very moment.

Because of the decision that I made, by my own careless actions; the division is down another enforcer, one of our best too…

Two enforcers down and an inspector, things couldn’t get any worse than this but lately I keep being proven otherwise so I should stop speculating that things couldn’t possibly get any worse.

Not long after Nobuchika’s sudden disappearance, we received reports from people claiming to have seen a strange individual wearing one of those helmets so the little missy insisted that our division should be the ones to investigate the call and it sure was a good call on her part.

Once we arrived we went knocking door to door to interrogate the neighborhood when only one house had no answer and we found a pretty nasty carnage inside the luxurious home that had once belong to a retired professor that created a virus to help protect our food supply, the so called hyper oats.

The moment that I stepped into that house and saw how the body had been mutilated I knew immediately that we were on the right track and not much to my surprise, Kou had beaten us to the scene which then explains who the strange individual wearing one of those helmets was.

He left us an audio recording stashed inside the victim’s throat and preceded into filling us in with the information that he had somehow gained about Makishima and what he was planning to do next but Kou failed to mention anything about my boy in the audio recording so I’m left wondering if he’s even aware of the current situation or not.

There were no questions as to what our next move should be. We had a location and a motive to hold our theory firmly and so we headed off after Makishima while division two carried out its investigation in trying to find my boy which is a complete waste of time. Division two would have been better off tagging along but apparently it wasn’t possible due to the recent riot that occurred throughout the city only a few days ago. The MWPSB just couldn’t spare any more personnel which is a damn shame.

Now that we’re here, seeing exactly how large this facility is, it was pure insanity to send the remnants of division one to wrap up this case. We’ll be lucky if we can even manage find Makishima and if he’s as smart as they say he is, chances are he’ll try to run while he still can but then again he might have other ideas in that psychotic head of his.

Splitting up in this huge facility with only the stun baton as our means to defend ourselves doesn’t exactly sound too promising but with the low man power that we have, there wasn’t any other choice in the matter and quite frankly I prefer being the one to go look for Makishima than the little missy or Kunizuka. If We do make contact with this man it will become a physical confrontation and the fact that he managed to give one hell of a beat down to Kou only means that he’s got skills in combat so if it comes to that I’m better suited for such a thing than the ladies.

Individuals who can’t have their crime coefficiency measured shouldn’t come much of a surprise to me. Throughout the years there have always been unique individuals whose actions made them unique which then caused problems when it came to prosecuting them by the law.

Their ways of thinking overwhelmed the court of law, doctors couldn’t come up with an understanding as to what these people were and in turn no one knew exactly how to deal with them. With nothing to call these people, grand psychiatrists began conducting researches on these people and then the terminology for psychopaths, sociopaths and so on became.

In Makishima’s case, this is exactly the same problem that has now occurred in this new century. There will always be individuals who cannot fit the norm of society but in this case with machines now able to detect everything in a person’s mind, if it would come that you can’t be judged like the rest of the people around you it’s like you do not exist in this new world and that can cause problems in the specific individual and end up exactly like Makishima.

A light noise suddenly catches my attention and I carefully inspect my surroundings but I don’t see anything that could have caused the noise but I do hear something. It’s low, a bit further from where I am but it’s definitely something.

I choose my steps carefully, always cautiously checking my surroundings as I follow the sound until I reached the source and my heart stopped for a second followed by relief to see my boy only a few feet away from me.

The first thing that I do is to quickly relay a message to the little missy and Kunizuka in order to notify them that I had found Nobuchika and as I got closer I can’t see any injuries on him and he doesn’t seem to be in any sort of pain which is good.

“Everything is alright now, son.” I tell him as I remove the cloth from his mouth and I can’t help but wince at the sight of red marks around his mouth. That damn gag had been there far too long but it’s over now.

“Behind you!” He shouts at me in panic the moment the gag wasn’t there any more.

I quickly look over my shoulder and there he is with a damn nail gun pointed right at me. I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings anymore and was solemnly focused on Nobuchika and if he hadn’t said anything I would have been in real trouble.

I lift my prosthetic arm to cover my face as the first nails were shot. The sound of metal hitting metal is all that’s ringing in my ears as I stand up and start charging towards Makishima, swinging my stun baton at him to try and get a direct hit.

After a few swings I finally manage to hit the nail gun, rendering it completely useless but in that process I lost the baton when it got entangled with the nail gun somehow.

Makishima doesn’t waste any time pulling another weapon out of one of his jacket pockets so it doesn’t look like he’s ready to give up just yet.

I really would love to use the dominator on this guy right about now. He’s in perfect position and the distance between us couldn’t be any better but it would be completely useless to even try pointing that damn thing at him. All I could rely on at this point was that damn stun baton but it’s out of my reach.

If I charge towards him and utilize my prosthetic arm as a weapon, I might just be able to overpower him. His new weapon of choice is simply a strap with a small metal ball at its end. If I do go in for the attack I’ll have to get that thing out of his hands before he can wack me across the head with it and once that’s done, then the rest should come easily after that.

There’s also the option for me to go directly for the stun baton first. It’s not that far from where I’m standing but if I do that, then he can go for Nobuchika and things can quickly turn sour on my end.

I can’t count on Nobuchika for doing a getaway. With both hands tied behind his back, he’ll have zero sense of balance and because of that he won’t get very far and that’s not even factoring his mental state right now. It’s without a doubt that he’s on the verge of panicking and he’s terrified but that’s simply minor details and it’s perfectly understandable in his situation but from the look I saw in his eyes, he’s definitely been injected with some sort of drug in his body. My guesses that it must be some sort of relaxant in order to incapacitate him just so he doesn’t try to run away.

I only have one option, for Nobuchika’s sake I have to take Makishima on in a physical combat and win. No matter what I must win.

Makishima quickly does the first strike and I block it over my head with my metal arm. The other pulls away and tries again as he swings the sling towards me and I block it again and this time I managed to catch hold of it with my other hand.

I roughly pull onto the sling and grab hold of Makishima with my prosthetic arm but not without some struggle causing me to lose my balance and we both fall down onto the ground but I refuse to loosen my grip and he doesn’t seem to know when to give up also.

“Give it up! It’s over!” I say between gritted teeth as I struggle to keep him in check.

“It’ll be over once I say it is.” He replied back as he manages to take a stick of dynamite from his jacket pocket and succeeds on igniting it somehow.

“Trying to blow yourself up and try to take me with you?” I ask, tightening my grip to try and keep the man in place with more difficulty than I thought that it would.

“You honestly believe that I’ll do a stupid thing like that?” He answers in a rather cockish tone.

It took me a bit to understand the meaning behind his words as I look up to see my son stumble onto his side as he struggles to free himself from his bounds and I realize exactly what Makishima plans to do and so does Nobuchika as he stares back at me with wide eyes.

“Don’t let that man go at any cost!” He shouts, his tone trying to mask the fear that has long since consumed him but his eyes tell me otherwise. “You’re a detective! Fulfill your duty!” He shouts back just as Makishima succeeds in throwing the explosive away from us and towards my boy.

Our job is to apprehend Makishima and as an enforcer that should be my sole priority and nothing else. Nothing should be more important than fulfilling my duty for I have nothing but this job in the end. That’s what I’ve been told time and time again.

But… I’m not just an enforcer.

My body automatically moved without even thinking. I shouldn’t have to think about what it is that I should do and what should be the main priority.

I released my grip of Makishima and dashed towards the stick of dynamite; grab it in my cold metal hand and swing it over my head and a few seconds later as the dynamite took air it got engulfed into an explosion sending me flying onto the ground as a rush of pain rushed through my upper body.

After a few agonizing minute, I turned my gaze towards an intense throbbing at my left side only to see that there’s nothing there. My prosthetic arm is gone and blood is slipping out as I cover it with my uninjured hand to temporarily stop the bleeding until help arrives.

“Dad!” I hear Nobuchika shout followed by low whimpers of pain and a few seconds later he’s kneeling over me. No longer bound as he lays his hands onto my chest, his eyes filled with fear.

The skin around his wrists is severely bruised and bleeding from scraps and cuts by forcefully freeing himself out of his bounds and just the thought that he did that out of pure panic breaks my heart. I know that it must be hurting him but with the rush of emotions that’s consuming him at the moment, I can’t even tell if he feels it at all at this point.

“Why would you!? What kind of detective are you!?” He shouts back, his tone full of worry and I never thought I’d ever see my son shed tears for me. I wish I could take everything that’s happened, be able to take all the pain away but I can’t.

“Nobuchika…” I lowly say his name as I try to ignore the pain on my upper left side. “Run…” I order but he doesn’t budge a muscle.

Much to my dismay, he’s in complete shock and I’m not even sure if Nobuchika even comprehended what I just told him to do but he needs to run. He need to get away from here as quickly as possible, he can’t stay here!

“No, stay. You’ll miss the grand finale.”

Makishima’s voice sends shivers down my spine as he grabs a handful of Nobuchika’s hair and pulls him to his feet followed by whimpers from my boy as he’s forced up.

“You’ve had your fun… Let him go…” I say through gritted teeth. Trying my best to endure the ever growing pain the best I can with little success.

Makishima knows that I’ve been incapacitated; I can’t do a damn thing to stop him but he must also know that Nobuchika is in no state to be bane to his plan and yet he’s not done.

“Now why would I do a stupid thing like that?” He repeats the same statement he had made earlier as he pulls out a blade from his pocket and flips it open with one hand.

Fear grips down onto me at the very thought of what that man is planning on doing next.

“If it’s killing you want… Kill me… Let him live…” I reply back, clenching onto my left shoulder as I try to sit up with much difficulty.

“All things come to an end once their usefulness is no longer relevant.” He says, not really sure if he’s talking to me or simply to himself. “Your usefulness has come to an unfortunate end.” He says as he gives a quick glance towards Nobuchika.

“Makishima! I beg you! Don’t do it!” I desperately plea but to no avail as he puts the razor to Nobuchika’s neck and presses the blade into the skin and blood comes spilling out just as a gunshot causes Makishima to let go of Nobuchika and I watch as my boy falls limp onto the cold floor gasping for air all the while crimson liquid keeps spilling out.

I force myself to drag my body towards my son as I release my injured shoulder to apply pressure onto Nobuchika’s neck to stop the bleeding as he continues gasping, his eyes filled with fear as he tries to breathe with great difficulty and unable to hold on to his tears as they flowing out.

There’s so much blood…

“Damn that bastard!”

Kou’s voice catches my attention and I quickly look around but Makishima is gone and Kou has my old gun in his hands. There’s anger and rage in his eyes, that’s without a doubt and as much as I want him to chase down the man that has hurt my son, I can’t… I can’t stop Nobuchika’s bleeding and my own by myself, I need help.

I feel my stomach drop down to my gut as Kou runs off in pursuit of Makishima even after seeing in what condition we both are.

I can’t believe that he abandoned us like that. We needed him more, we desperately needed him right now and we should have been his priority over Makishima but it wasn’t the case.

Makishima could have waited and no matter how much I shouted Kou’s name, he never turned around, he just kept on going as if we were of no importance at all.

“Nobuchika… Look at me.” I tell him but his gaze remained away towards where Kou had been standing only a few seconds ago. “Look at me, son.” I tell him again and this time he turns his gaze towards me, gasping and shaking.

The last words we had said to each other had been spoken in anger. Nobuchika was angry that I allowed Kou to flee and he had every right to be considering the situation that we were in. Oh I wish I could take all of that back and do it all over again. There are so many things I would do differently, so many but my life is starting to slip away.

“You are my son after all. Look at those eyes; they look the same as mine used to back when I was young.” I tell him as he looks at me and struggles to swallow but it managed to help calm him down a little and in turn that will help to slow down his heart rate.

I’ve barely seen him without those damn glasses in his face but his eyes are just the same as mine used to but he has his mother’s colour. He has her hair and her skin, he’s the best thing that has ever happened to me and I wish I could have been there for him all these years.

“I love you son. More than anything in the world so you stay with me alright?” I tell him as I fight my own tears but they still manage to roll down my cheeks.

My heart aches to watch my son in this state, knowing that he’s in pain and there is nothing I can do to help him. All I can do is to keep pressure onto his neck and hope for the best. My hope now lies onto the little missy and Kunizuka to somehow pull through this whole mess…

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**Yayoi**

I felt relieved to hear that message from Masaoka and even more relieved when he told us that the inspector didn’t seem injured. I was honestly imagining the worst case scenario for a moment but I guess things can’t always be awful.

Inspector Tsunemori on the other hand became worried and headed out towards the university’s laboratories and ordered me to stay at the control room in case Makishima came to turn the power back on but after hearing that explosion I couldn’t stay put any longer.

So far I haven’t run into inspector Tsunemori and I wonder if she went chasing Makishima. Considering how dangerous he is, I hope she hasn’t gone after him on her own but in a moment like this I’m not sorry that I disobeyed orders. I can’t stand back knowing that my colleagues and friends are in danger and they might need my help.

Makishima is a dangerous man; we never should have come here with only the three of us. No matter how you look at it, it was suicidal on our part but what other choice did we have? We couldn’t just sit back and let him do what he wanted with our food supply, we just couldn’t.

I can’t help but feel this ever growing anxiety building up inside of me as I take a step closer to the university’s laboratory as I carefully navigate my way through the warehouse.

I don’t know why but I’m afraid. Ever since we arrived here I’ve had this fear deep inside of me and it’s been growing more and more and it doesn’t seem to want to stop and as I keep going deeper inside the warehouse, the fear just keeps on getting worse.

My heart is beating hard and my breathing is a bit shaky. I know it’s just anxiety taking over my body and it’s not like I’ve never been faced with this kind of situation before but this time it’s different. It just feels wrong and what I’ll find will be more than I care bare.

“Nobuchika… You must… Stay awake…”

Masaoka’s voice takes me out of my thoughts and I bolt into a run towards the sound of his voice. I don’t know what happened but his voice is different, it’s weak and pained…

I pull out my dominator and cautiously inspect my surroundings as I move; I can’t be careless when there are still some possibilities that Makishima is still at large. I have to assume that he is still free and ready to attack at any moment.

“Masaoka!” I call out when my eyes fell onto Masaoka kneeling in a pool of blood and without thinking I dashed towards him only for my heart to sink as I see the inspector shaking much too violently for my taste and gasping for air with so much blood everywhere.

Masaoka has become dangerously pale and where his prosthetic arm used to be is now a total mess with blood spilling out too furiously.

“Kunizuka…” He says weakly as he falls on his side due to too much blood loss.

“Hang on! You’ll be okay!” I tell him as I apply pressure onto his shoulder.

“Kunizuka…” He weakly says my name only to push me away with his good arm. “Nobuchika…” He adds just as weakly and I turn to look at Ginoza only to see blood spilling out from his neck as he gasps for air even more.

I quickly apply pressure onto Ginoza’s neck and turn my gaze towards Masaoka only to see him fall into a daze and his eyes are growing tired by the second until they close.

“Masaoka! Stay with me! Masaoka!” I shout but to no avail.

I knew when I heard that explosion that it couldn’t be a good thing but I never thought that something like this had occurred.

What am I supposed to do? I can’t call for an EMT, we are too far away and in order to get one inspector Tsunemori would have to be the one to request for one and I wasn’t able to get a hold of her once I left my post. I don’t know what to do next.

“Ginoza! Don’t lose conscious. You have to stay awake.” I tell him as I notice his urge to fall asleep.

He’s tired, I can’t even imagine just how much blood he’s lost and for Masaoka to have lost consciousness due to blood loss I know that it’s too much and If I can’t get any help soon, Masaoka will die and I’m not sure about Ginoza either. But at this point both of them will need blood transfusion and surgery but if only I had an extra hand, I could apply pressure onto Masaoka’s injured shoulder and everything would be fine. I know it would!

I hate being this powerless…

“Ginoza I got you, everything will be fine okay?” I try to reassure him as he gasps and I can’t tell if he wants to say something or not.

Tears slide down his face and I wish I could wipe them away but I can’t if I want to keep his wound from bleeding out. His eyes are filled with fear, his body is shaking and I feel as if his body is growing colder by the minute and all I can hear his gasping for air. I wish there was something I could do to ease his pain, to make everything better but I can’t.

Gun shots in the distance catches my attention followed a loud ruckus and then all went quiet for a few minutes until the silence is killed with a single gunshot and all goes dead quiet.

Slow footsteps breaks the long silence and with each slow steps, it sounds to be getting closer and closer until I see to whom they belonged to, much to my relief for a moment there I was afraid that it could have been Makishima.

Kougami…

He doesn’t have to say anything. Just from the look in his eyes it’s done…

He finally got what he wanted; he killed Makishima with his own two hands but at what cost? I’ve tried to reason with him in the last two years to give up on vengeance, that it wouldn’t end well and the cost of achieving revenge would be too much to bear but he always refused to listen to me in the end.

“Kougami!” I call out to him to gain his attention as I quickly glance towards Masaoka and much to my relief, he’s still breathing. It’s not too late, if we act now he can still be saved, everything will be alright.

I return my gaze onto Kougami but he hasn’t moved closer towards us and instead he’s starring at us like we’ve got some disease.

“Kougami, help me!” I shout at him to snap him out of the daze that he’s in but it’s no good and instead of walking closer he backs away and bolts into a run.

“Kougami!” I call back at him unable to hold in my own tears from falling as I watch Kougami’s figure growing smaller as he keeps on putting distance between us until I can no longer see him.

How could he do this to me? How could he do this to us? I may not have been close to him, we had our moments but it wasn’t anything special but what about Masaoka? He has worked with Masaoka for so many years and what about Ginoza? Weren’t they friends? How could he do this to them!?

Violent gasping catches my attention back towards Ginoza.

“Ginoza! You have to stay with me!” I tell him but he doesn’t seem to be registering anything that I’m saying and I’m not even sure anymore than he can understand the words that I’m saying as I watch him slowly slipping away.

“Please don’t go! You can’t go…”

 

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

**Karanomori**

There are some things that I know I just shouldn’t do but I can’t help myself from doing it. Maybe that’s why I’m a latent criminal now but all is good in the end I guess. I mean it could be worse for me…

Hacking into Adachi Municipal Psycho-Pass Correction and Medical Care Center’s security cameras wasn’t too hard to do. What was more of a challenge was to find the specific cameras that I wanted.

It wasn’t a smart decision on my part but I just had to see for myself how Ginoza was doing and what I saw, what I’ve been seeing since that awful day only breaks my heart.

The first few days Ginoza was bedridden after he came out of surgery and after a few days he stood up for the first time only to stop in front of a mirror for a few seconds only to smash it into pieces causing further injuries to himself which then forced the nurses to sedate him just so he could not hurt himself any further.

Due to being mentally unstable, that incident unfortunately lead to the removal of everything that Ginoza could potentially use to hurt himself again and now all he has is a bed, enclosed in white padded walls but if you ask me taking everything away from him wasn’t the solution. The doctors should have investigated as to what caused Ginoza to smash that mirror in the first place. They needed to figure out what triggered in his mind for him to do that to himself but instead they opted for the easy method and if you ask me that can’t possibly be helping his mental state at all.

Ginoza’s crime coefficiency has risen to a much too high number but it’s been fluctuating ever since the incident so there is still time for his crime coefficiency to lower under a tolerable number. As long it fluctuates, he still has a fighting chance to recover and for Ginoza’s sake I pray that it does. He’s been through too much already. He doesn’t deserve to be branded a latent criminal due to what happened.

“You shouldn’t be doing that Shion.” Yayoi states as she enters the lab.

“Not to worry. I’m quite good at hiding my trails.” I tell her before removing my gaze from the monitor to look at Yayoi.

“Shion, you know that’s not what I meant.” She adds as she sits down on the couch.

I can’t remember the last time I saw Yayoi this exhausted. Even on her first day on the job as an enforcer she wasn’t this tired but it’s not just exhaustion that’s weighing her down. I would have to be a fool to think that she wasn’t affected to some degree by what happened that day.

“I know…” I acknowledge as I get up from my chair, not bothering to close the monitors. “Ginoza needs to be surrounded by the people who care about him. Not being locked up inside a facility with people who couldn’t care less what happens to him.” I add as I turn back to look at the screen for a few minutes.

For the last hour, Ginoza has been lying on his side facing the wall. He hasn’t moved once since he lay down on the bed and I just can’t understand why the doctors and the nurses are content seeing him this way. They should be aware, they should see that he’s not doing well and that he needs help and yet they are perfectly okay with turning a blind eye even after Akane mentioned to the doctors that more should be done to help him.

“Inspector Tsunemori and I have been going to see him for a week now and he hasn’t done any progress.” Yayoi replies tiredly.

“He needs to…” I say softly.

Ever since the first day I met Ginoza I knew he was a strong man. Maybe not physically but his mental strength was remarkable even though I could see how anxious and insecure he was. His skills as an inspector was almost flawless and to this day he holds the highest number of case closed in the MWPSB. He’s contributed so much to this place; this can’t be how it all ends.

“Shion. He won’t talk to us; he won’t even look at us.” She tells me not that she needed to.

I’ve been observing Ginoza every day for the last week and I’ve seen what he does when Akane and Yayoi go to the rehabilitation center to visit him. No matter what Akane tries, nothing works and Ginoza just refuses to come out of his cocoon that he has confided himself in.

“He refuses to eat or drink.” Yayoi adds, again not like she needed to but I understand she’s simply trying to prove a point that Ginoza is not doing very well.

I’ve been trying to put myself in Ginoza’s shoes for the last few days, just trying to understand how I would feel if I would have gone through the exact same thing he has been and I honestly can’t. I don’t think I could cope knowing that my father selflessly chose to die in order to save my life.

Makishima played his mind games right up to the bitter end. He probably knew that Masaoka could have survived his injuries as long as he would have applied pressure to his shoulder and chances are he knew about Ginoza’s relationship with Masaoka so he slit Ginoza’s throat to force Masaoka to choose between his own life or that of his son knowing full well he couldn’t save both in his condition.

They can say whatever they want about Makishima but that man was beyond cruel. He had no morals and I believe that he only thrived on other people’s suffering.

“I know… I’ve seen the nurses sedate him every night in order to hook him up on an I.V.” I state to Yayoi and continue, “All of this, it’s just wrong. Ginoza is being treated nothing more than an animal; he’s traumatized how hard is that to see? I haven’t seen him in person, only through my screen and even I can tell that he needs psychiatric help.”

I still remember that evening when he stood up and stared at himself through that mirror. He didn’t move, he just stared for a few minutes before pressing his fingers onto his neck and just like that in a flash he slammed his fist into the mirror causing the glass to shatter everywhere on the floor where he stood.

What triggered in his head to make him act so violently? Nobody knows because the doctors completely ignored it and instead opted to take away everything from him. However, I do have my own theory as to why Ginoza reacted that way. It has to be his injury after all that’s what he was touching before he suddenly flipped. I believe that a memory was triggered in that moment, probably one related to Masaoka.

“Ginoza is there physically but his mind isn’t. His brain is like a hamster in its wheel. It just keeps on rolling and rolling none stop as it tries to make sense of what happened but Ginoza refuses to acknowledge the reality.” I further add as I sit down next to Yayoi on the couch leaving her a bit confused as she repeats the last word that I spoke.

I slightly nod before adding, “That he’s lost everything.”

“He still hasn’t lost everything. His psycho-pass is still fluctuating, he still has a chance to come out of this but he needs to take control right now before it’s too late.” She quickly shoots back and I can’t deny that fact.

Ginoza’s crime coefficiency is still fluctuating and as long that it does then there is still a possibility that everything will be alright and that things will somewhat go back as it once was but considering the mental care that he’s receiving I’m starting to doubt that it will ever happen.

“His father is dead. He died to save Ginoza’s life and Shinya is gone too and what makes that worse is the fact that he walked away when Ginoza needed him most…” I tell Yayoi and I can’t help but feel sorrow just thinking about it. “What are a healthy psycho-pass and a job to a man when he has nothing left?” I further add.

Ginoza was always silent, he always kept to himself and to be honest we barely talked to each other but I liked him. I never had any problems with him when we did talk and that was enough for me to make an assumption of him and they later proved to be right.

I never really had to ask Ginoza questions about himself, I got all the answers from Masaoka himself without even having to try. He could never pass on a chance to talk about Ginoza and it didn’t take long for me to see that his son was his whole world and I knew if Masaoka had to sacrifice his own life in order to save his son’s, he would do it without a second thought… It’s tragic that’s how it all ended and yet the most beautiful thing a parent could do for their child…

Masaoka once told me that his wife had died sometimes after he became an enforcer and thus leaving Ginoza in his maternal grandmother’s care and a few years later his maternal grandfather passed away in his sleep. It was only after talking to Shinya that I found out that Ginoza had been the one who had found his grandfather dead but thankfully Shinya had been there to provide comfort at the time…

“I tried…” Yayoi mutters pulling me out of my thoughts.

I didn’t say anything all week because I didn’t want her to feel pressured to talk about the incident but I knew that Yayoi felt guilt for Masaoka’s death but it wasn’t her fault. She tried; she did the best that she could but sometimes your best just isn’t enough because in the end no one can do miracles.

“I know you did, Yayoi.” I tell her as I wrap my arms around her. Pulling her closer towards me in a gentle embrace. “But you couldn’t split yourself up. You did everything that you could.” I further tell her.

“Did I?” Yayoi asks and continues, “I keep thinking about it every night. Trying to think of something I could have done differently to save both of them.”

“You did everything that you could with what you had at the time, Yayoi.” I further tell her but I know that no matter what I say, Yayoi will feel this way until she comes to her own acceptance of what happened and that will be once she’s ready to move on and I’ll be there to support her all the way no matter how long it will take. “You couldn’t have left to get supplies, Ginoza would have bled out within minutes and by the time you found them Masaoka was on his last thread. You needed to make a choice; there was no way you could have saved both by yourself.” I further state.

“How could he do this to us?” Yayoi asks just as she bursts into tears and I hold her tightly in my arms and rest my cheek onto the top of her head.

Shinya’s promise still echoes in the back of my mind. He promised that he’d save Ginoza and that he would get Makishima. He got Makishima alright but when it came to doing the right thing, he ran.

I had respect for Shinya ever since I had met him. He never spoke for nothing and when he would say something he meant it but after that day, I lost that respect completely. He kept his promise that he would kill Makishima even though he shouldn’t have. It was murder and it was wrong but he couldn’t keep his promise to save Ginoza.

Ginoza is alive now because of Yayoi but he hasn’t been saved…


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

**Tsunemori**

The last month has been tough as we all tried to cope with what happened in our own way. It wasn’t easy to come to accept what Kougami had done. He had been there as Ms. Kunizuka was trying to stop Ginoza from bleeding out and Mr. Masaoka lay there dying from his own wounds but he abandoned them for dead and if it hadn’t been for Ms. Kunizuka, Ginoza wouldn’t be alive now.

Every day for the last month I’ve been visiting Ginoza in order to try and help him in his recovery and I doubled my visits after I was notified of what he had done to a mirror which then resulted in further injuries to himself that he just didn’t need.

I protested against taking everything away from what Ginoza had in his recovery room, I debated that he needed things to help with his mental state and that he should be given a psychiatric evaluation in order to be able to give him the proper mental care that he needed in order to recover but they refused to listen to me as they stated that they were fully aware of what they were doing and that it was for the best but it hasn’t worked.

If things were not already bad, Ginoza refuses to eat and from the nurses’ report it’s not because he can’t, it’s simply because he doesn’t want to but that can’t be healthy for him and all that’s really keeping him from starving to death is the I.V that the nurses give him in the mornings and evenings.

I fear that Ginoza is doing on purpose by refusing to eat, I fear that he wants to die and he’s given up completely and death is the only thing that he’s waiting for and if that’s the case I can’t allow him to do that. I can’t allow Makishima to win after all, that’s what he wanted wasn’t it? He played a twisted mind game on Mr. Masaoka and forced him to choose between himself or Ginoza knowing full well that Ginoza would be the choice.

Makishima wanted Masaoka to die a slow death, he wanted my enforcer to suffer as much as possible but he also wanted Ginoza to watch his father die and then he would follow Masaoka’s fate but that didn’t happen thanks to Ms. Kunizuka but things would have been different if Kougami hadn’t run away when Ms. Kunizuka had asked him for help. If he had given assistance, things would have turned out a lot different and Ginoza wouldn’t be in this pain.

Driving into the parking lot of the Adachi Municipal Psycho-Pass Correction and Medical Care Center felt strange to me the first few times I came here but now it feels like it’s no big deal but it was only after stepping into this building that I realized just how unfairly the patients are being treated in here and it’s only then did I realize exactly why there are so many people who become latent criminals. They are not bad people, they just never received the proper mental care that they should have had and that’s just wrong.

I step out of the car with my bag tightly in my hands as I enter inside the facility. I’ve been here so many times now that it’s becoming too natural for me and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not but I no longer need help to get around this place which I strongly prefer and the thing that disgusts me is that the same faces that were here when I first came to visit Ginoza are still here and what is worse the same guy who has been bashing his head none stop until he bleeds is still here doing the exact same thing and no one tries to stop him but I know that it’s pointless to say anything about it.

There’s nothing I can do for that poor man but there are still some things that I can do for Ginoza and as an inspector I can use the authority of the MWPSB to gain certain rights that would normally be refused towards regular people. Of course I was met with some opposition from the doctors here but I was able to manipulate my way with Sibyl into getting what I wanted.

At first they didn’t want to be too cooperative but after mentioning how it would be a shame to lose such a potential enforcer for me to use as I see fit, they were more willing to allow me to do as I wanted. It was only then that I understood why Ginoza’s crime coefficiency had started to rise before that incident. Sibyl was already starting to slowly get rid of Ginoza, to them he was no longer needed as an inspector and knowing that leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

People can say whatever they want but Ginoza was a great inspector, he was my senior and I held great respect for his seniority and I wish I hadn’t been so focused on Kougami. I should have tried to better understand him instead; maybe things would have turned out a lot differently if I had.

I silently walk a few more minutes when I stop and slowly approach the window, starring at the motionless form lying on a bed.

Ginoza…

I can’t see his face but even from where I’m standing I can tell that he’s lost weight and that pains me because the man that I see right now isn’t the same as the man I saw that night on my first day on the job. He seemed so confident, strong and all together but now he’s completely broken.

“Ginoza, it’s me.” I gently say but nothing, not even a single flinch.

It doesn’t’ surprise me, he’s been like this ever since the incident but I was hoping to see some progress by now…

With my newfound authority I allow myself in Ginoza’s temporarily confinement and cautiously approach him as I lay the bag down onto the floor and gently sit down on the bed.

I was right as much as I wished I had been wrong. He’s lost so much weight, he can’t stay in here any longer otherwise he’ll die and I can’t let that happen. Not after everything that’s happened.

“Ginoza, I can’t let you die-”

“Dying sounds like the only thing that’s left for me…” He cuts me off like it was nothing at all and it almost caught be off-guard.

It shouldn’t have come much as a surprise to hear him say that but I still felt like cringing when he said those words none the less. The only form of comfort that I got from it was that he finally spoke to me, it might not be exactly what I wanted to hear but it’s a start.

“Ginoza!” I call out as I grab his shoulder, forcing him to lie on his back just so I could better see his face before continuing, “Never say that again! I know it may seem like there’s nothing left but I need you! Ms. Karanomori and Ms. Kunizuka need you! We need you.”

I can’t say if he was moved by my words, his expression didn’t change. His face is numb, his eyes empty and yet his expression is saying so many different things all at once. He’s broken and it hurts to see him completely given up. It’s not the man I came to know but it’s not over, I’m not going to give up on him.

“They say that I no longer have a chance for a recovery…” He says. His voice so low that it came out as a whisper.

I was aware of his status now, that there was no longer any chance for a recovery for him anymore but that didn’t come much of a surprise considering how poorly he was taken care of. If the staff here had done their jobs properly, Ginoza’s crime coefficiency could have been saved but they didn’t so something had to give and unfortunately it was Ginoza that broke…

“I know… But there is still something you can do.” I say gently, trying to add a bit of enthusiasm in my tone to try and change the mood but with zero success.

“Right…” He mutters, looking away from my gaze.

“Ginoza… I miss him too but you know that he would have wanted you to carry on.” I dare say.

I didn’t want to say anything that could have reminded him of Mr. Masaoka but I guess that went out the window when I hinted to him about the fact that he still can become an enforcer, the last thing that his father was before his death but I know how Mr. Masaoka was and he’d be the first one to tell Ginoza to get up on his feet and keep on going. That I know for certain.

“I was in the way… He didn’t save me just once but twice because I was worthless-”

“Ginoza you had traces of drugs in your body. There was nothing you could have done; you can’t blame yourself for what happened. The fault lies solemnly with Makishima, he’s the one who used the explosive that injured Mr. Masaoka and he’s the one who injured you.” I cut him off and don’t waste any time to tell him how it is.

What Makishima did that day it was pure cruelty, there was no other way to describe it. He abducted Ginoza in the middle of the night just so he could do this little trick. The only thing that I haven’t come to a certain conclusion was if Ginoza was originally going to be used as leverage against Kougami or it was just Makishima’s plan to get rid of Mr. Masaoka or maybe both…

“Slit my throat you mean.” He corrects me and that too I didn’t want to mention it. I can only imagine how frightening it must have been to be cut like that.

It reminds me of Yukie, how she had her throat slashed open from one ear to the other, right to the bone but she died pretty much instantly due to the amount of blood that she lost but Ginoza was different. His injury was only on one side of his neck and my assumption is that Makishima must have gotten interrupted before he could finish the job and for that, Ginoza was lucky.

“Yeah…” I acknowledge softly.

No use in debating otherwise but I’m happy to see that it’s healing great. At least that’s something the staff did correctly here.

“He was there you know…” He says pulling me out of my thoughts, leaving me a bit confused before he continued, “Kougami…”

I wish he hadn’t notice Kougami there at all. Just thinking about it for Ginoza must be like opening up an old wound and then proceed by rubbing salt in it. That was truly a low blow from Kougami.

“Ms. Kunizuka told me that she saw him…” I acknowledge even though I wanted to state otherwise for his sake but that would have been pointless.

I don’t feel like lying for Ginoza’s sake, not like it would do him any good. He’s much too smart for that anyway and I don’t think he’d appreciate it if I would lie just to protect him. The thing is that I know when Ginoza asks or state something, it’s because he already knows the answer and he has the facts to back up his statement. In that moment he’s not doubting himself at all. He’s certain of what he saw and if I would deny him that, I could break his trust and I can’t have that.

“He shot at Makishima forcing him to flee the scene and I could hear my father call out to Kougami but he never came back and instead ran after Makishima…” Ginoza recounts and it makes sense. I had assumed that Makishima had been interrupted and didn’t get to cut Ginoza properly like he had wanted but it doesn’t come to me as a surprise that it was Kougami. “I know we couldn’t let Makishima get away, I understand that but when Kougami came back and I could barely stay awake. He had no reason to abandon us the way he did…” Ginoza further says.

Kougami had two chances to do the right thing and like Ginoza said I guess he chose to pursue Makishima because he figured it was more important in the moment and he probably assumed that Mr. Masaoka could have taken care of his and Ginoza’s injuries in the meantime but the second time…

Ms. Kunizuka told me that Kougami simply stared at them for a few seconds before running off and no matter how many times she called out to him he never turned back to help leaving her to make a hard decision. A decision that she never should have had to make but she had to and she did and the results of her decision are that Ginoza is still here but Mr. Masaoka isn’t…

“Kougami was wrong. I won’t try to glorify his actions; he didn’t have to kill Makishima and he shouldn’t have fled the way he did.” I tell him as I brush away the hair from his face and much to my surprise he doesn’t try to stop me.

“Tsunemori, can I ask a question?” He asks as he looks at me and I long to see his eyes alive again and not numb.

“Sure.” I cheerfully answer as I give him a soft smile.

“Would my father still be alive if it hadn’t been for my own injury?” He asks and my smile quickly fades away.

“Ginoza that’s not a fair question.” I answer, unable to tell him the truth and not like I had to.

“He allowed himself to bleed out just to stop my own bleeding. How am I supposed to feel when I know that my father died because of me?” He states and he’s on the brink of tears as he fights to keep his emotions in check and I wish that he would just let them out. He doesn’t need to put a strong face in front of me, I’m human and also is he and it’s perfectly normal to cry.

“That was a choice he made. He wanted you to live even if he knew that it would cost him his own because he was father and in the end losing you was too much for him to bear.” I say, still brushing his hair with my fingers.

“I’ll never forgive Kougami for what he did… I can’t…” Ginoza states but that’s probably something that isn’t helping to keep his hue cloudy but I can’t blame him for feeling this way because neither can I.

“I’m not asking you to because a part of me can’t forgive him either.” I admit but it’s not because of the fact that Kougami completely turned his back on us back there but because he used me to get his way and I was too blind to see it.

I should have seen his true nature after he had taken me to professor Saiga. It was only after I had met the man that he told me that most people who speak to him gets their hue clouded and Ginoza further emphasized about the same thing but I quickly jumped onto Kougami’s defense when Ginoza’s worries had been completely justified.

Kougami had placed my mental health in danger by bringing me to Saiga but that’s not what angers me. Speaking with the professor was a great experience for me and I don’t regret having spoken to him. What I can’t digest is that Kougami completely kept Saiga’s effect from me until we had left as if he thought I wouldn’t have gone if I knew otherwise. It was shady on his part.

Just thinking about how Kougami played me like a violin infuriates me.

Kougami and Makishima had a few things in common and one of those things was their skills to get into someone’s head and manipulate them into thinking that it was their own doing and not someone else’s. The difference is that Kougami didn’t murder anyone, well that was until he murdered Makishima that is. Now he’s no better than Makishima himself and that saddens me…

“I’m having you transferred to the MWPSB, you’ll be able to recover much better there than here. To be honest I desperately want you out of here, the sooner the better.” I tell Ginoza, quickly changing the subject. We’ve been on a morbid topic for far too long, we need to start moving forward.

“You won’t leave me alone if I say no will you?” He asks.

“I’ll start coming here three times a day if you say no!” I answer as I get up and grab his arm before adding, “Now up on your feet! I brought you some clothes that Ms. Karanomori and Ms. Kunizuka chose for you. Both of them are just as eager to see you return as I am.”

I pull Ginoza up to his feet and then I take out the clothes that Ms. Karanomori chose herself with the help of Ms. Kunizuka and to be honest both of them had a bit too much fun prying into Ginoza’s things.

They wasted over an hour trying to pick out an attire that they both could agree on and in the end they chose something very casual. A simple long sleeve black cotton shirt with midnight blue jeans topped with a hunter green double breasted high collar jacket and not to mention that Ms. Karanomori took on the liberty to pick out the more intimate clothing much to my dismay but she insisted that they were important and there was absolutely no way of changing her mind so I allowed Ms. Karanomori to have her way.

“… Okay…” He mutters as he takes the clothes in his arms, his cheeks a slight rosy tint. Something I have to admit is rather cute on him.

I pull out a mirror from my bag and proceed to hang it where the previous one once was. I figured before we left he’d at least want to make sure his hair wasn’t too messy but then again a bed head look suits him quite well but definitely once we get back to the MWPSB, he’s going to need an haircut.

“Ginoza, once I was told that you no longer had a chance for recovery I had your apartment emptied and brought in a quarter at the MWPSB just so you didn’t have to bother with it once you came out and it was better for your dog also. I hope you don’t mind.” I tell him as I adjust the mirror and make sure it stays into place before looking away to face him.

“It’s fine…” He replies back softly and adds after a few awkward minutes of silence, “I may be a latent criminal now but I still have my dignity…”

“I’m sorry!” I blurt out a few seconds after he spoke and now I’m the one who’s becoming red faced.

I turn around and step closer to the glass window as I look outside and if my memory is correct there was someone who had previously occupied the confinement in front of Ginoza but now it’s empty and I can’t help but wonder if that’s the individual who had somehow managed to escape a few weeks ago but they didn’t get far and unfortunately they were killed for attempting to escape which is a shame.

After a few minutes I cautiously turn around to see Ginoza is now fully dressed in colour and no longer in that plain white robe and honestly I was really growing tired of that damn colour. It’s enough to drive anyone crazy.

Ginoza is looking at the mirror blankly and I can’t help but feel a little uneasy.

“Ginoza… Please don’t smash this one.” I tell him gently, not daring to move closer just in case he gets another episode.

“It’s practically healed but it won’t go away…” He says as he touches his neck, feeling the long horizontal scar with his fingertips.

“It won’t go away.” I state as I move closer to lay a hand on his shoulder.

“It angers me. It’s a constant reminder how my father died.” He says, not removing his gaze off the mirror or should I better say the scar.

“Don’t see it like that. It’s a mark that says that you survived something horrible and you’ll keep on surviving.” I voice out and that’s the truth. Not many can claim to have survived such an ordeal and live to tell about it but Ginoza is still here and to be honest he doesn’t look bad with that scar either.

“It doesn’t feel like it…” He mutters, still touching the scar with his fingertips.

“Oh will you stop starring at it!” I say as I pull him away from the mirror and force him to look at me as I button up his jacket, slightly hiding the scar from view. “It’s only a big deal if you want it to be and if you ask me, it doesn’t look that bad.” I add as I grab the bag on the floor and open the glass window as I pull Ginoza out before something malfunctions or Sibyl changes their mind and decides to keep him here.

“If you say so…” He says and for the first time he gives me a soft smile as we start walking away from that small room and closer towards freedom as a new chapter begins.


End file.
